It's Christmaseve! What are you waiting for? Invite an angel to your table or wrap your limbs around a loved one and do the spirit of the season right. If you know anything about Christmas in Japan you know that it's got more to do with making babies than last minute fried chicken and creamy white strawberry cakes! Here's Pizzicato Five with their ode to the eve, "Le 24 Decembre"

This next addition to the 12 Days of J-Pop Christmas list comes color-coded and choreographed for high-impact holiday fun. Put on your boogie shoes, here comes Puffy in decked out in red, green and white with their music video for "R.G.W." Only two more days 'til Christmas!

It's Christmaseveeve and whether or not you're reeling in feeling the frenzy of the heightened excitement of the season there's always room for a little plaintive introspection. Local auteur/chanteuse Laura Weinbach and her chamber-pop ensemble Foxtails Brigade are among many who have released a special album for the holidays this year, but no seasonal tribute has ever so sweetly serenaded the ghosts of Christmas past quite like their single "I'm Not Really In The Christmas Mood This Year" from the album Time Is Passed. The song is a beautiful if painfully heart-tugging reminder that the Christmas monster needs taming, a glockenspiel and brush lullaby for the lovers of the true meaning. Plus, it comes perfectly packaged in a ruefully gorgeous, must-see visual medium, do check out the video below!

Today's addish to the 12 Days of J-Pop Christmas countdown is a special one for the holiday hams in my house as this video for Halcali's hip-hoppin', bottle-poppin and pillow-fightin' Christmas hit "Strawberry Chips" directly influenced the design and style of the Tree Skirts - that loveable duo that brought a little naughty but nice Christmas cheer to this years' Amobepalooza/holiday party jam (if I do say so myself). Anyhoo, if you find yourself short on the sort of girlish charm and whimsy that makes one want to have a post-shopping spree sleepover pie-toss then this is a visual experience to revel in.

It's come to this. I'm indulging today in posting what just might be the "fiiiive goooolllld riiiiiings!" equivalent to my most beloved personal favorites when it comes to this addition to the 12 Days of J-PopChristmas countdown, the wonderful, white Christmas-y 「雪が降る町」(or perhaps "Snow Town" for a blunt translation) by late 80's/early 90's Japanese pop/rock unit Unicorn. This song isn't necessarily a Christmas song, but something more of a New Year's jam replete nostalgic lyrics fed by an emotional current moated with eddies of loss and regret, the kind of feelings a winter home-coming begets. Depending on how it gets to you, that feeling alone is Christmas-ish enough to warrant inclusion here. Also, there's snow!

It's no wonder the song begins with a lyric indicating a dislike for going out among the the holiday crowds, the city boy opting instead for an "over the river and though the woods" type of getaway to his down-home backwoods beginnings with the knowledge that snow is already falling there "again this year". He ponders getting a souvenir for his sweetheart and then contemplates the few remaining days in the year before adopting something of a fuck it, it's the end of the year attitude, reveling in the simpler times realness of the postcard perfect country snowscape.

Maybe it's because I always get a little homesick around this time of year, maybe I'm swimming against my own emotional currents and eddies linked to Christmases past. Maybe, just maybe I'm overdoing it a bit, but I like I said up top I'm indulging myself today. :p